When Mercer Canada recently partnered with a vendor on an employee well-being initiative, the human resources team noticed the images included in the materials reflected a stereotypical idea of the traditional family — a heterosexual couple with two children, all Caucasian. “It wasn’t reflective of our population,” says Julie Duchesne, Mercer’s health business leader in […]
The University Pension Plan has appointed Brian Minns as its first managing director of responsible investing. Prior to joining the UPP, Minns spent 10 years working for Addenda Capital Inc, culminating a three-year tenure as its vice-president of sustainable investing. In that role, he was responsible for impact investing and the implementation of environmental, social and […]
Employers are applying several lessons from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic to their benefits offerings, particularly the importance of employee well-being and access to virtual health care, says Marie-Josée Le Blanc, a partner and innovation leader at Mercer Canada. “Before the pandemic, there were two types of organizations: those that were doing more to support well-being […]
As employers begin rebuilding the workplace once the coronavirus pandemic recedes, their group benefits plan will be their best tool — and ally — to help employees regain their health and wellness footing, said Jennifer Katzsch, regional vice-president of Western Canada at Desjardins Insurance during Benefits Canada‘s 2021 Benefits & Pension Summit. As with past crises, […]
It all started with a mechanical bull and too much tequila. Mike McClenahan wasn’t initially sold on virtual physiotherapy when he first met with Phzio, a telerehabilitation provider, back in 2018. But after a client’s Christmas party at a country and western bar that involved too much liquid courage, the then-managing partner of Benefits by […]
While solvency funding relief helped Canada’s pension funds withstand the turbulence of 2020, a long-term vision with an eye to a more robust funding framework would offer better support, according to pensions experts. Responding to the crisis, the federal government launched a consultation last fall on measures to alleviate pension solvency funding requirements for defined […]
Investors breathed a sigh of relief as they turned over their calendars at the end of 2020. Few were sorry to see the back of a turbulent year that drove nation after nation to their worst economic contractions in generations: over the course of 2020, the U.S. gross domestic product shrank around 3.5 per cent, […]
Amid the second (and hopefully last) year of the coronavirus pandemic, employers are starting to plan for the post-pandemic future. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a global pandemic, forcing many employers around the globe to rapidly shift mainly white-collar employees to working from home. By April 2020, in Canada, […]
We are now in Month 14 of the coronavirus pandemic. For institutional investors like pension plans, this pandemic and its consequences highlight the reality of systemic risk: events like the ongoing pandemic can and do happen and pension plans need to get ready. Because another systemic risk is at our doorstep: climate change. 2020 was one […]
While a national pharmacare program is yet to be revealed by the federal government, any future plan should contain provisions for all costly treatments and not just rare diseases, says Jennifer Schmidt, a principal at Mercer Canada. Read: Federal budget highlights national childcare system, extension of pandemic subsidies This week’s federal budget announcement contained only […]